Oh, woe is us - each and every one of us in the Basin, including the wildlife in the refuges south of us that depends on "pass through" water for survival.

The level of water in Upper Klamath Lake is dangerously low, so far below normal that we will not have enough for the upcoming irrigation year. Hardly a week goes by that we don't see an article regarding the impending disaster in the Herald and News.

Hello-o-o-o: Am I the only one who has noticed that the quantities of water that are being released down the river are two, three even four times greater than last year?

If the lake is so low, why in the world are we allowing such huge quantities of water to flow downstream? Are there some endangered species downriver that we are protecting? Maybe, there are.

Could they be the power companies that depend on full reservoirs to fuel mid-summer (very high profit) power generation? Or the folks who live in the Trinity River watershed in northern California? How about downstream salmon, I thought they needed water during the hot summer months?

One more thing, if the flow in the lower Klamath is so important, how come we don't list the flow at the mouth of the Trinity River for each day - this year and last, as we do the flows around here?

David Steiner

Klamath Falls